I Merged the Wrong Records: What Now?

If the records weren't duplicates and the merge is from the last 30 days, undo it from Merge History: see Undo a Merge. For older merges, and merges that can't be undone, your original data isn't lost: Dedupely's Merge History keeps the original records and the values that won in every merge, and you can download it as a CSV to restore what you need in your CRM. This playbook walks you through the recovery in five steps, from stopping running merges to fixing the search that caused them.

Step 1: Stop any merges still running

• Bulk merge in progress: click Cancel all. Merges already in progress finish; the rest are cancelled.
• Auto Merge: open the search's Auto Merge dashboard and click Pause (keeps your schedule) or Disable (turns it off). See Auto Merge.

Do this first, so the same mistake doesn't repeat while you investigate.

Step 2: Find out what was merged

1. Go to Merge History in the left menu.
2. Choose the object in the Record Type dropdown and filter by date.
3. Click the three dots on a merge to see the original records and the values that won.
4. Click the pop-out icon to open the merged record in your CRM.

Admins can also see who ran a merge, and when, in the Audit Log.

Step 3: Decide how to recover

Your CRM may give you extra options:

• Salesforce: the master record keeps its ID, and the other records go to the Recycle Bin for 15 days before Salesforce deletes them permanently. Re-create records from the CSV.
• HubSpot: merges are permanent, and the merged record usually gets a new ID. Re-create the record from the CSV.
• Pipedrive: merges are permanent. Re-create the record from the CSV.

Step 4: Restore your data

1. In Merge History, click the download arrow at the top right to download the CSV.
2. Find the merge and the original values you need.
3. Restore the values in your CRM, or re-create the record. For many records, get the surviving records' IDs from your CRM's own export, then import the corrected values with those IDs, so your CRM updates existing records instead of creating new ones.
4. Move activities, deals and contacts back to the re-created record in your CRM, if needed.

Step 5: Stop it from happening again

• Reject the false match. Once you re-create a record, it may match the same record again. Reject that match so it never comes back in any search for that object. See Rejected Matches.
• Tighten the search. Match on at least three fields, use stricter match options (e.g. Exact instead of Fuzzy), or add a filter. See Avoiding false matches.
• Fix your Merge Rules if the wrong values won. See Merge Rules.
• Test before scaling up. Run 1–2 Single Merges and 1–2 bulk-merged pages before merging everything, and check the Merge Preview column first.
• Move the search back to Auto Match if it was on Auto Merge, until it stops finding false matches.

Example

A sales team ran Auto Merge on a contacts search matching only Last Name (Exact) and Email (Domain Root). Overnight, it merged colleagues who share a surname at the same company.

1. Stop: they disabled Auto Merge on the search.
2. Find: in Merge History, they filtered by that night and found 37 merges.
3. Recover: they downloaded the CSV, re-created the 37 contacts with their original emails and owners through an import, and moved deals back by hand for 5 of them.
4. Prevent: they rejected the 37 matches, rebuilt the search on First Name (Exact) + Last Name (Exact) + Email (Exact), and put it on Auto Match for two weeks before turning Auto Merge back on.

Common mistakes

• Investigating before stopping Auto Merge. It keeps running on schedule while you look.
• Splitting records when only values were wrong. If the records were real duplicates, just restore the values.
• Re-creating records without rejecting the match. They'll match again on the next scan.
• Importing without the record ID. Your CRM creates new records instead of updating the ones you meant to fix.

FAQs about recovering from a wrong merge

• Can I undo a merge in Dedupely? Yes, within 30 days for most merges, from Merge History. For older merges, download your Merge History as a CSV and use it to restore the original values in your CRM. See Undo a Merge.
• Is my original data lost? Your field values aren't. Merge History keeps the original records and the values that won in every merge. Activities and associations move to the surviving record, except where your CRM's API doesn't allow it: in Nimble CRM, tasks, deals, events and message history are removed with the duplicate, and in Close CRM, a contact's tasks and meetings can't be moved.
• Can I see who ran a merge? Yes, if you're an Admin. Check the Audit Log.
• Will the same records be merged again? Not if you reject the match. Rejected matches stay out of every search for that object, including Auto Merge.
• Does Dedupely restore the data for me? No. You restore it in your CRM, using the values from the Merge History CSV. If you need help, contact support via email or live chat.